Seattle PI 10/23/07
'Friendly' raunch

The women behind Sex in Seattle have been exploring the funny side of interpersonal anguish for about 10 years. This time, with Episode 15, The Anatomy of Love, they are unusually raunchy.
The unladylike Tess shakes off a surprise kiss from a would-be boyfriend by telling her roommate, Colin (another would-be boyfriend), "I'm gonna go masturbate." Once is never enough. A week later Colin ventures that masturbating more than twice a day to defuse a kiss may be ... a little ... uh ... problematic.

Meanwhile, pregnant Jenna is wondering which of three lovers might be the father. And should she have an abortion?

As for the married virgin Elizabeth, she is left to watch a lot of old movies in her search for the true nature of love. Imagine her surprise when she has an intensely erotic -- by Elizabeth's standard's -- dream about George who is "just a friend." Nathan, who engaged Tess in that horny-making kiss, avows that "no guy wants to be in the friendship zone." And slutty Chloe somehow finds herself on a blind date with her latest lover. Chloe, by the way, has been experiencing what might be delicately called "feelings" for Colin. Who, you remember, has feelings for Tess.

Adding humor if not clarity are video segments explaining how the endocrine system governs who gets lucky at singles bars.

Written by Kathy Hsieh, who plays Elizabeth, and directed by ShawnJ West, "Episode 15" upholds SIS's hard-won reputation for producing entertaining trash. It's good to see Serin Ngai, a constant presence in the early years, back on stage as the much-flustered Jenna. And as the video expert on the anthropology and physiology of mating, Agastya Kohli is hilariously serious.

Sex in Seattle runs through Nov. 17 at Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Tickets $12; students, seniors and actors $8, discounts for groups; 206-323-9443 or sis-productions.org.

Seattle Weekly - 10/24/07

Sex in Seattle, Episode 15
Imagine Amy Tan's "Joy Luck girls with real, hormonally-driven libidos and you have playwright Kathy Hsieh's witty Sex in Seattle series in a nutshell. These four - a virgin, a born-again celibate, a femme fatale, and an undecided mommy-to-be - take a blowtorch to the cookie-cutter caricature of docile, obedient young Asian women today. The drama unfolds multimedia-style, with actors slipping offstage only to reappear a split-second later on projected film, e.g. in a gender-bending rendition of Gone with the Wind's final scene. I am tickled to report that my (namesake) Jenna (Serin Ngai) is a rollicking goodtime girl who juggles three potential baby-daddies while exploring her options withdiscreet trips to Planned Parenthood (try finding that plot twist in Madame Butterfly). Like everyone else in Richard Hugo House's red velvet seats, I kept wishing I'd Tivo'd the first fourteen episodes. JENNA NAND Ends Nov. 10.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/calendar/stage/2007-10-26/


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